March 29, 2012

1912

Lunatic at largeThe inhabitants of Tubber and surrounding districts were in a state of terror for the past few days, as a rumour was circulated that an able-bodied dangerous lunatic, who, it was alleged, escaped from Ennis Lunatic Asylum, was at large in the locality, and their fears were doubly increased when it was rumoured that he had a revolver in his possession.

The police and Asylum attendants searched through the county for the fugitive, but without result, as the lunatic, whose name is Rogers, hid in the woods all day, and only came out at night to demand food from local farmers by threats.

The people’s fears were, however, abated, on yesterday evening, when Constable Moriarty, of Tubber Station, captured the lunatic.This was his second escape within the past six months. He was captured on the previous occasion in the mountains of Gilroe by three policemen and some Asylum attendants.

Carnmore shootingOn Friday night a dangerous shooting outrage took place at Renvyle, Oranmore. The house of a man named James Burke was fired into and the windows shattered, but fortunately none of the inmates were injured.

The attacking party fired a number of shots at close range, and on their departure discharged a volley of shots in the air. The occurrence, so convenient to the police barracks in Oranmore and following so quickly after the shooting outrage on the Castlegar hurlers at Rockhill, has created a great sensation in the district. Something in connection with the grazing of an evicted farm at Kinvara is locally assigned as the cause of the outrage.

1937

Death trapAt Ussey on the Creggs-Ballymoe road, there is a steep hill with a sharp turn at the foot. Right in front of the traveller going downhill, there is an unprotected stream about four feet deep. This is a veritable death trap for motorists and cyclists and provision could be made immediately for cutting off the sharp corner or building a wall between the road and the stream, before any serious accident occurs there.

EditorialWe fear that the lager beer factory which was to have been established at Spiddal has gone the way of other shadow factories that were to have been set up in the West. We wish it were otherwise, for this industry would have proved of very real value as a means of employment in one of the most necessitous areas along our coastline.

Within the memory of the fathers of some of Galway’s older citizens, the City had sixteen mills and other factories and a population of well over 30,000. Within the memory of the present generation, that population had fallen to little over 13,000. Today the population curve is rising rapidly once more.

In the natural order and at the present rate of progress and expansion, the population will soon be back to where it was a century ago. Without a wealthy and prosperous area surrounding the City and without a busy harbour, it would quite clearly be impossible to maintain that population unless the City were highly industrialised.

This is the problem we shall have to face and in facing it, we have got to realise that old established and independent “sheltered” industries that afford regular employment at good wages to a number of people are of much more value than smaller industries whose only means of survival is a protective tariff that affords them a monopoly against outside competition.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.